1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for entering alphanumeric characters into electronic devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems for entering characters having accents or extensions into electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multiple keystroke keypads are known in the art. In such keypads, each alphanumeric key is associated with one number and several text characters. For example, the second key on the keypad is typically associated with the number xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d and the text characters xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d. In order to enter text characters into an electronic device using such a key, the user will depress the key once to enter an xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, the user will depress the key twice to enter a xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d, and the user will depress the key three times to enter a xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d.
Languages other than English, such as French and Spanish, use accents on text characters. In order to accommodate the use of such accents, known multiple keystroke keypads associate more than three text characters with a single key. For example, the characters xe2x80x9cÀxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cxc3x81xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d may be associated with a single key. Due to the increased number of characters associated with the key, a user is required to depress the key as many as four or five times to select a particular character associated with the key. Requiring a user to depress a single key as many as five times to select a particular character is undesirable, as such a high number of keystrokes can be annoying to the user or difficult for the user to accurately perform.
It would therefore be desirable if there was a system which allowed a user to enter characters with accents or extensions into a device using a multiple keystroke keypad, and which minimized the number of keystrokes required by the user to enter the information.
The present invention is direct to a method and apparatus for entering an alphanumeric character with an accent or extension into an electronic device. A base character is entered into the device using a keypad, and the base character is then displayed on the device display. Next, a table that includes a plurality of accents or extensions is displayed for the user on the device display. The user then selects an accent or extension from the table that the user wishes to associate with the base character. After the selection of the accent or extension from the table by the user, the base character is replaced on the device display with a composite character that consists of the base character and the accent or extension selected by the user from the table.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, the accents or extensions in the table displayed for the user are ordered in response to the base character entered by the user and/or in response to a language selection entered by the user. In this embodiment, the accents or extensions that are most likely to be selected by the user are determined based on the language and the base character entered by the user, and the most likely extensions or accents are then placed at the top of the table displayed for the user. This aspect of the invention facilitates the rapid selection of the desired accent or extension from the table by the user.